What went wrong with the Deer Park pipeline fire?

As we enter the third day of the Deer Park pipeline still burning, Jaime Galloway of Deer Park Emergency Services shares some insight on why it's still burning and what is taking so long for them to investigate.

[MrKnotWright]

The one thing they haven't discussed is why the HELL didn't the pipeline have BOLLARDS installed around the valve head that close to the highway. A chainlink fence is install just to keep out people not vehicles. We put up BOLLARDS to stop cars from running into convivence stores. we install them to stop cars from running into hospitals. So why the heck couldn't they have installed them around the valve, its not like the pipeline company couldn't afford it.

[tuffdawg]

Worst situation would be putting fire out, blessing that line caught fire immediately, this situation could have been Soso much worse if not caught fire, could had a fireball a half a mile wide burning and killing people past Walmart area, angels were looking down, even a atmosphere explosion could have damaged properties for miles away, far more worse ways this could have went down, what happened was the lesser evil i assure you, only other way to limit this situation for prolonged would be in high population areas add more valves in line on outskirts of population areas to shorten the off gasing of line to a couple of hours and purge taps with more than a fence area and large cement blocks

[dugie]

Title doesn't go with content. Nothing went wrong, a car ran into a high-pressure natural gas valve and it caught on fire
Problem is that valve turns gad on and off and if its damaged, you have to find the next 2 valves
One between main pump station to stop flow coming towards broken valve, and next valve pass this one to stop gas from flowing backwards. These may be many(100 or more) miles apart, and I think these pipelines are operating at a high pressure, so it takes time to shut valves off and pressure to bleed down. I would consider this a trial run for terriost attack.

[sunspots]

"Purge with Nitrogen" I was wondering if they could do that. Makes sense after its clamped off the volumes will be feasible.... But why not have Ai controlled pressure management systems with built in underground check valves. Real fences along the right of ways and big blocks of granite obstructing above ground equipment would kinda make sense too.

[OneWildTurkey]

Why doesn't the owner/operator of this pipeline have effective management solutions? Leak detection and runaway flow sensors should have done most of this work automatically.

[frednone]

Have they released the name of the driver yet? I mean, it's been a week. They could at least tell us if the vehicle was stolen or not.

[briang]

Isn't it a colossal mistake to have the plant and residential neighborhood on a border that complicates the response?
Why not redistrict one or the other?

[OneWildTurkey]

If they're the 'first responders' why do they always arrive after the first people to try to help?

[BiancaMercado-uvvx]

All these pipes should have emergency shutoff down line. Another example of amateur hour bs in the Houston area. Everything’s better in TX huh?

[benitomoralesjr]

Simple safety standard were not in place.
Say a lot about American loyalty.

[dougclem]

Three days burning? Some body on vacation, asleep at the wheel? Who was the driver, condition? Where was the gas going, where was it from? Where's RED ADAIR, JOHN WAYNE TO PUT OUT THIS WELL FIRE? RAILROAD COMMISSION AND REPUBLICANS DROPPED THE BALL. SHOULD HAVE AUTOMATICALLY CLOSED A VALVE WHEN PRESSURE IS LOST. THEY LET THIS COMPANY SLIDE FOR A LONG WHILE. AIN'T NO PIPELINES IN AUSTIN?

[TheCool_Guy]

I'll tell you what went wrong, somebody high up in the oil and gas industry got tired of gas prices going down

[tonyharding]

And why is letting it burn off a good option? Well Red Adair is no longer with us.

[slevin]

Has anyone asked why a second explosion can’t be used to suffocate the fire?

[WhoFlungPoo]

Whadya mean "What went wrong?" Nothing, if you look at the evidence. Out of control vehicle strays across open field, strikes weak chain link fence and shears a valve off on a high-pressure pipeline. Said impact generates sparks that ignites spewing gas and bang! Quit over-complicating a simple incident and begin protective measures to bolster perimeter defense around other similar valve sites, especially given the number of pipelines that snake through the Houston area.